Russell Beatie has a fascinating picture showing his wide array of devices recharging, which triggered in me something that has been disturbing me for a long time: why is it that every mobile device out there seems to have a different power plug? There is no competitive advantage in offering a different charger and yet it seems that every vendor has come up with a different approach when it comes to the charging port. As a result, scores of users have to pack multiple chargers when they travel. Just off the top of my head, a typical user would generally pack different chargers for each of the following devices: laptop, mobile phone, camera, mp3 player, and PDA. Granted, a way to solve the problem is to aggregate devices (for example, as I do with the Treo, use a smart device that includes many of those functions) so you have to carry fewer chargers but ultimately, there’s always more than one and few people around with a charger that is compatible. There is, however, a competitive advantage for vendors in establishing a standard. That advantage goes to the age old issue of price. If two players agreed to a similar set…